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2 min read Blog

Participation Grant

Funding to help with costs of attending RailSoc events

We understand that not everyone can afford to join us as often as they'd like — or at all. Train tickets are expensive. Food and drink is expensive. Not to mention the cost of studying in Edinburgh already. If you find yourself in this position, there is funding available.

The University of Edinburgh offers eligible students up to £300 a year to get involved with student groups, like RailSoc. This does not need to be paid back.

Participation Grant

Eligibility

You need to meet one or more of the below criteria:

  • If you are an undergraduate student:
    • receiving a university widening participation scholarship, e.g., Access Edinburgh;
    • who has a registered disability;
    • who is a student carer;
    • who is a student parent;
    • who is a care leaver or estranged;
    • who is an Asylum Seeker or has Refugee status.
  • If you are a postgraduate student who received the UoE Scholarship, UoE Scotland Scholarship, Access Edinburgh Scholarship, or Participation Grant as an undergraduate at the university.

Even if you're not eligible for the grant, we are still taking steps to minimise costs for our members. We do not charge membership fees, and we choose destinations with return tickets for ~£20 or under. If you think there's more we could be doing, please get in touch.

How to apply

You can apply once per year, either in semester 1 or 2. You will have to provide a personal statement, outlining how the fund will support you to participate in university activities. You can apply for multiple student groups or sports clubs in the same application — it doesn't have to just be RailSoc — but the maximum you can be awarded is £300.

Assuming a day trip may cost up to £20 for a return ticket, you can multiply that by the number of events you would like to attend. During the academic year, we plan to hold one day trip per month on average. This could be as many as nine events throughout the year, for which you could reasonably apply for £180.

If you have to pay for travel to attend other events, such as our model railway sessions, or board game or quiz nights, you can also include this in your application.

The grant cannot be backdated; you cannot apply for trips that have already taken place.

Apply for the Participation Grant

See you soon!

Seb
Secretary (2025–26)

RailSoc is uninvolved with the administration of the grant, is not responsible for the outcome of your grant application, and does not guarantee the accuracy of the information on this page (e.g., in case the eligibility criteria changes before we can update this page). For any queries, please contact the Scholarships and Student Funding Team.